The Hillwood Herald is the news blog of Hillwood Academic Day School. Written and published by the school’s upper grades (fifth through eighth), this blog tracks student, staff, and family happenings at the school.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Hey Herald readers. Just wanted to tell you that Ms. Moorhead, our blog adviser, has already printed the news/story forms. The forms are on the front counter, which is where the front door is. You can pick one up, fill it in, and when you're done, you can drop it into the news box. If you spend more time on the computer, you can also comment and give the news ideas. Of course, we'll have to have Ms. Moorhead look it over, but, I guarantee, we will report on it some time. Have a nice day!

As you may know, President Obama gave a speech at the United Nations meeting on Thursday, 9/24, morning. His speech ranged from nuclear weapons, the global economy, to disease and democracy. He seemed to focus the most on nuclear danger from North Korea and Iran. He talked about the importance of the United Nations and about how all nations should cooperate.

To read the President's speech, you can go to this link on The New York Times website.

The United Nations originated after World War II to replace the League of Nations in 1945. It's an international organization with aspirations for the world concerning the economy, security, human rights, international law, social progress, and world peace. It consists of 192 member states and its six official languages are: English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.

This is a Wordle about the ''Why I Learn Contest." If you want to make one of your own go to wordle.com and press create. It's a very easy process you just go to Wordle .com and press create, then put a couple texts in it, and press go.

Read Irene's story about the contest. The Herald will be entering this contest. Please email us your story ideas.

People spend their time working, watching TV and movies, sleeping, and household activities. Unemployed people do lots of household activities, watch tons of TV and movies,and spend lots of their time sleeping. 15-24 year olds spend 25% of their time studying, another 25% of working, and spend half of their time sleeping. 25-64 year olds work,eat and drink,and they also watch TV and movies. People ages 65 and over spend most of their time watching TV and movies, doing household activities, and sleeping.

The image show is an "infographic," or slang for "informational graphic." An inforgraphic can be any map, chart, or diagram used to show an event, object or place. This infographic from The New York Times is made with a computer program called Flash. Flash is program for creating interactive features for websites. You can click on it and different thing will happen.

On 9/23/09, the upper graders from Hillwood Academic Day school went on a field trip to the Academy day. First we split our class into three groups. Next the parents and our teacher drive us to the Academy of Science. Later our group arrived at Academy of Science in the front door. Then our class waited in line. Then we went in and we saw a movie called Bugs in 3D. When the movie was done our class split up. I went with my group to the aquarium which was downstairs. At the aquarium we saw a bunch of animals that we saw and animals we never saw. Later we went upstairs and went to see a bunch random science. Finally we went to a diorama of African animal and saw a bunch of real penguins.

Nathan Sawaya chooses not to sculpt out of clay but Lego's. Nathan was busted on Mythbusters that a ball of Lego's will not crush a car. Nathan started in 2000 and lives in New York. His childhood dream was to have fun. After college he discovered Lego's.

Nathan's art is in South America in the show titled, The Art of the Brick. Nathan was born in Colville,Washington and raised in Veneta, Oregon. Nathan's newest work is Circle Triangle Square.Today Nathan has more than 1.5 million bricks in his New York art studio.

The uppergrade students get to go to the museum. We got there in Mrs. Woods car. the most interesting things there was the rainforest dome, the plastic model of the dinosaur skeleton, t-rex, and the model of the sharp tooth shark.

If I was given an opinion to choose from I'd say "This place is the most spectacular planetarium I've ever been to''. I also liked the little fish there. I really liked the little eel tunnel that had eel garden inside. When entering the museum you see a shark pond which is mixed with other fish. I expected the other fish to be eaten, but I guess they fed the shark well. I hope I go there again.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I'm sure many of you guys (and girls) have used Wikipedia before. For the ones who have never heard of it before, here's a small explanation of what Wikipedia is. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia about almost anything. From countries to movies to books and even to art. But, there's a catch. The information is not always accurate. That's because people can just log in and change the information to anything they want. Usually, they are generous enough to give the correct facts but there are a few who purposely mess it up for everyone.

The History and Founders of Wikipedia

Wikipedia was originally based off the idea of Nupedia, another online encyclopedia. They were both created by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. Nupedia was founded on March 9, 2000 under the name of a company called Bomis, Inc. Jimmy Wales was the Bomis CEO while Larry was the editor-in-chief. Jimmy was in charge of designing the encyclopedia while Larry used a wiki to search up the results. In conclusion, Wikipedia was launched officially on January 15, 2001.

Wikipedia: The Good UsesOn Wikipedia, there are articles about almost anything. You can look up different movies, books, countries, and even some schools. It can give you the info you need for your report or something. Wikipedia is open to everyone so a scientific article can be written by a real life scientist.The Inaccuracy of InformationSometimes, this online dictionary can give false information on subjects. Since anyone can just sign up and post words onto subjects, it's pretty easy to discover that the information you found is fake. Some articles are also really short. It gives the really main point that you know. Usually, I wouldn't use Wikipedia as a source for a major assignment, such as a report on a certain topic because, like I said above, anyone can just post false information on the page about my topic.

Differences Between Britannica Online Encyclopedia and WikipediaTheBritannica is somehow more organized than Wikipedia. It gives categories to choose from where as Wikipedia just has a search box. They list their blog and stuff along with a small search box. But, the Britannica only has articles about certain subjects. They don't have information about movies, people, and shows. Wikipedia has all that since real people are contributing to it.

Friday, September 18, 2009

The upper graders are writing letters to the president, about his speech at Wakefield High School. First we wrote about who we are and what we liked about his campaign. The second paragraph was what we liked about his speech and what it meant to us. The third paragraph was what three specific goals we would do as students and as citizens and how we would achieve these things.

The video below shows the president and his staff talking about all the letters that he receives and what he and the White House does with all of them. Each week, the president answers ten letters.

Jarbas Angellis has written an original composition. His inspiration came from a picture in his local newspaper. The picture was of birds sitting on electrical wires. Angellis drew notes on composition paper to represent the birds. Later the notes became chords, then becoming different rhythms, all in the key of C Major.

This must have been quite an effort to be able to create a song based on the position of the birds, however, the effect is the same as any other song. This song, though short is much worth hearing.

The picture was by Paul Pinto, the music by the birds, the idea from Jarbas Angellis.

I made this post at wordle.net. What I did to make this post is I typed words that describe the benefits of being an upper grader. As you see when you are an upper grader, you get to bake, you get candy, you get to go on lots of field trips, and we get to go to the park everyday.

The second worldle is about lunch. At Hillwood, the lunch is hot and delicious. One of my favorite lunches at Hillwood is creamy chicken. It's so yummy mmm....

Virginia Maestro Diaz or Viki a pop singer from Spain. When she was 7 she found out she was in love with music. In the 60's she was the lead singer of a cover versions band, or in a piano voice duet. At 19 she went to college to study music.

Viki was in the TV show "Operacion Triunfe". When Viki was 12 she composed her first song on guitar. When she was 15 she joined her first band. Soon she was interested in blues and jazz.

Play with the video that goes along with one of her popular songs. Wait for it to download (about 30 seconds) and then click on the screen.

Hey Herald readers! Do you have any recent news or requests for us upper-graders to report on? If so, please comment below or if you attend Hillwood, there is a "News" box at the front counter which Mrs. Woods, the upper-grade class teacher brought in. You can write the idea on a slip of paper and put it in the little slit at the top of the box. We'll get back to ya!

For new families, I am pleased to introduce 'The Hillwood Herald' on behalf of my fellow bloggers. It is a blog where the upper-grade classroom report about recent happenings regarding about Hillwood School or families. We also post news about educational topics such as NASA moon plans and about the Address To Students Across America by President Barack Obama. So far, my favorite Herald posts would have to be about Zach, our school's dogby Zack O. and the post 'Create Your Favorite Super Hero' by Julien G.

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopened at 7 a.m. after the crew worked 70 hours repairing a damaged steel beam. But now drivers are driving to fast around the turn on the bridge and hitting the steal beam which is damaging it. So the Bay Bridge people are thinking about lowering the speed limit on the bridge or else they will need to repair the Bay Bridge again.

We used word Wordle.net to make this post about the fall. This is howwe made our Wordle. First we typed a bunch of words about the subject.Next we did edited the text to make it better.Finally, we changed theimage and then we post it into The Hillwood Herald.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Are any of you Scrabble-lovers? Well, here's a new game ... DEEPLEAP! DeepLeap is exactly like Scrabble except, you have to be fast. Mentally and physically. When you open the game link, beware. There is no start button nor a pause button. It just starts automatically.

DeepLeap requires the players to have a large vocabulary and to be a fast typer. There are nine tiles and each one will turn red in about ten to fifteen seconds if you don't use it. When I first played this game, I was annoyed to be honest with you. As I've said above, there was no pause or start button and it starts automatically ends after you use 75 tiles. My highest score would probably be around 550.

But, my favorite part of the game was that it listed all the words i typed in along with how much points it's worth in a straight line right below the game. That was helpful for me so I knew which ones are already done. Also, you hvae more tiles. In Scrabble, you only got about 7 tiles of letters.

Hehe. As you look at the picture in this post, it states that this game is a "fast-paced time wasting game." It can pass time quickly for one who needs something to look forward to or just wants to play a game. It's definitely not a time-waster since it can improve your language a little.

Friday, September 11, 2009

As I was watching Mr. President Obama's speech on C-Span, I was once again taken aback by the way he has inspired millions of people at a time (including myself), but in this case, his audience was the students of America. I stared at the television, concentrating, trying to digest every word he said.

He didn't talk about health care, immigration, or something else like that. He talked about how we as students have certain duties at school and for school. These duties are to take responsibility for your actions, to always try your best, to never give up. If you do give up and quit school, you're giving up on your country, one less person that could lead us throughout the 21st century.

As for teachers, their jobs are to guide and to inspire students, to help students reach their full potential. The government, to provide the tools and supplies to set the high standards necessary to live in the real world.

Brennan is a 9 year old news reporter. He runs and edits a blog. His 2 year "blogging" anniversary is February 2, 2010. He lives in Jefferson County, which is around Seattle. He calls his blog the Spruce St. Weekly. He wants to become a journalist when he grows up. He sells his newspapers for 25 cents each and has made about 100 dollars.

My feelings about the Students Across America speech on Tuesday September 8, 2009, at Hillwood Academic Day School, where I watched it on TV was inspirational. The Students Across America speech by Barack Obama was great. It really spoke to me. He spoke with such confidence, again the speech was inspiring!

On Tuesday, September 8, President Obama talked to all the students of America about education. Tuesday was the first day of school for Hillwood.

President talked in Arlington, Virginia, at Wakefield High School. He told the students that you need to work to get somewhere. You cannot drop out of school and then somehow land into a good job. Even if you did land in a good job, you would not have the education to do well at the job because you dropped out of school.

Most of you know about the "Why I Learn" Contest. It is a journalist contest for students, and kids under 13 can enter. It is on June 19 2010, but the date might be changed, and you can apply on the internet. if you win, you get money and you get a job on the Time's magazine. Students from The Herald may try to enter the contest during the summer.

I really liked the music because it gives you a chance to know that the president of the united states is going to come on the platform. I also liked how he kept talking about how education was going to take us to where we want.

I'm writing this because a lot of people in the United States need this advice The music was also cool because I like that kind of music. The speech was also very interesting because Obama started telling stories about how he had to wake up at 4:30 A.M to be home schooled.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009, President Obama wanted to make the speech at Wakefield high school. He wanted to make a speech there because kids have dropped school during high school. President Obama made the speech so he can help the students for hat the future. Now student are studying very hard so that the student can have a better future.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

I'm sure you've heard about President Barack Obama's Education Speech on Tuesday, September 8. Obama spoke about how learning will lead you where you will be someday.

Just recently, Secretary Arne Duncan, spoke about a new 'I Am What I Learn' video project. The U.S. Department of Education are encouraging kids 13 years or older to enter in this contest. For this contest, you videotape yourself and you talk about why education is important right now and how it will help you to fulfill your dreams. The video should be under two minutes.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

It's back-to-school time folks! Hope all your summers were good. As you know, Thursday, September 3, was the Back-To-School Get Together for fellow Hillwood parents. Many of them attended and got to know one another.

At the get-together, there were many new ideas to contribute to Hillwood. One of which is the Hillwood Afterschool Program. For the Fall semester, Hillwood is offering afterschool program activities with Ema's dad, Murat, in charge. The program includes karate, soccer, gynastics, yoga, and creative drama. These activities are available to all children, kindergarten through eighth.

During this get-together, we ate many foods. There was hot dogs, chicken wings, chow mein, cookies, chips and salsa, and many varities of drinks from red wine to just plain water. I'm sure everyone had a full share! The food was delicious!

Well, just wanted to give a small update. Hope you all had a great summer and have another fun year during your new school year! Bye.